Decorating Tip to Save Money

Do you have kids who LOVE iCarly? Today on "Nate" was a segment on a teen girl who adores her and wanted to decorate her bedroom like the iCarly bedroom. The "Nate" show decorated a bedroom on the set for the gal to customize it for her but with the iCarly influence. I about fell out of my chair when he suggested buying a large letter M for the gal's name for $24+ and painting it to match the decor.

If you're decorating with your kids, don't go to a "department" store for a letter in the craft or decorating area! Use cardboard or the poster board to make the letter or the full set of letters for a name! It would be so much cheaper and your child could help with the decorating of it!

If you are a bit crafty, you could even cut the letters out of corrigated cardboard and make it a "sandwhich" to make it thicker and cover with wrapping paper or material. It would be soooo much cheaper and still be cute and affordable!

Sunday Silence

Fall

Bahhhh humbug! Some one please tell me it isn't so! It's "that" time of the year and I'm sure not ready for it!

For some reason I'm NEVER ready for Fall! It's just getting too close to Winter and means a lot of tidy up time and preparation time for several months of nasty, cold and well below freezing. It means snow, and more snow and even more snow before I can get it dealt with and throw in a whole lot of ice too! It means closed up windows, and only a couple days of sunshine but a few months of cloudy and dreary skies with limited daylight. It also means floundering around outside doing chores in tons of clothes and snow above my knees. That's HARD trudging and rough on the legs and back.

Then there is the issue of ICY roads and add to them the fools who don't slow down and cause more of a hazard in the Winter then they manage to be in good weather!

Fall is really quite a pretty month and does have a lot going for it such as better sleeping weather, less bugs, but..... it isn't my favorite as it's too short. Winter weather arrives in only a month or thereabouts.

Maybe I need a banner up top for the number of days until Spring! ;)

There's my annual "whine" and now it's time to suck it up and deal with it again!

Interestingly, I wonder if the folks who like Fall the best mostly live in the Southern part of the US. I'm sure if I lived in the South I'd like it a WHOLE lot better and Summer a WHOLE lot less. Is our favorite season a geographical thing?

What region are you in and what is your favorite season?

Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

September is "Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month". It's a good time to make sure we know the symptoms and IF we had any we hadn't tended too, we really ought to get an appointment made with our gynocologist and get it checked out!

I know we hear the reminders alot, but sometimes we need to hear some a few extra times to get us in motion.

Breast cancer has the pink ribbon for their logo but I've not heard of one for Ovarian Cancer. Does any one know of one? I'd like to get a ribbon graphic if so. ;)

Canning Addiction

If one is going to be addicted to anything, this is the best addiction!

Most addictions are bad for one's health and/or well-being and leads one to destitution and/or major heartbreak.

With canning we come out ahead, and it helps us eat healthy. It also gives us more exercise and personal satisfaction which is good for our well-being!
Do you can?

I need a room added on to the house just for all my canning supplies and the filled jars!

September 11, 2001

I heard on the news we now refer to 9/11 as National Service Day. I prefer 9/11 as National Service Day can include many types of service. I feel that the historically sad day is best not combined with other events in honor of the significant number of deaths, the families and friends of the deceased and our many many people who assisted in so many ways and some for so long. Now some of the firemen/cops and others are having lung issues from the inhaled dust. So for me, I'd prefer 9/11.

That being, my thoughts and prayers are with all who passed in such horrendous ways, the families and friends, and the many many heros who helps and still do. My prayers are also with my friends and family who had losses on that tragic day. My prayers are with all the countries who have come together in these years past to protect freedom.

I so wish there could be much more peace in the world and more understand of other cultures and such to help spread it further.

September is National Preparedness Month

September is National Preparedness Month; and the purpose is to:
encourage individuals to have an emergency supply kit,
make a family emergency plan,
get involved in preparing their communities for emergencies.

http://answers.usa.gov/cgi-bin/gsa_ict.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=7525

Another project I need to accomplish. I need to get my vehicle back into winter mode. This is the time to get the homestead/farm organized for winter, and time to get the house prepared to burn wood for our winter heat. The vehicle is the easy part as I have new tires.

The outside work is the harder part and yet I hate house cleaning.....If I start now, maybe I'll be ready come the end of winter!

Sewing

Do you sew? I have sewn all my life but have had times where I did a lot and other times I did little to none other than mending. I would hate to think of not being able to mend and operate a sewing machine! It has to be expensive to either pay to have mending done or throw clothes out for not being able to mend.

One of the most memorable sewing projects I have done over the years was to make my 3 daughters matching tops with skirts. They got to choose their color and all had lots of lace and ribbons on them. Then I took them to get a free pic at a photographic studio.

I recently came up with a craft idea that will take a bit of sewing. I've been drying homegrown catnip and am going to sew some catnip mice. I hope to be able to sell a few as I have a few people who expressed interest. I've thought of doing an Etsy shop but it needs enough crafts in it to make it worth while. This should be a good one - I hope. Too bad there isn't "dog nip" too!

Then yesterday I read that September is National Sewing Month. Coincidence maybe? I guess I better get my sewing machine in gear! Fortunately I don't have a lot of mending needing done. I can just get to the sewing.

Update on LadyBug (injured goatie)

I think I asked for those who can to please pray LadyBug heals from her injuries. Due to the severity of her injuries, I've been afraid to get my hopes up for her to be able to heal and survive. She still has a ways to to, but the prayers are working from what I can see. Her hoof and leg appear to be healing pretty good. After hubby's bone infections, being septic and such, I didn't have a lot of hope for LadyBug. But now I feel I can take a deeper breath and feel she may have this beat if we don't end up with something else going wrong!

I know I haven't given much at all in details and hope to write that up in the future and include pics.

LadyBug has really become "spoiled"! She LOVES treats and has a lot of expectations of how she thinks things should be going. Being in the house, she's now paper trained for piddling but those berries are another story. Thank heavens they are easy to clean up! We go through a ton of papers with her and the 2 doelings. She does out side a bit now into the doggy yard for a bit of fresh air and for the doelings to frisk around. Today she actually ran a few steps a few times! This was a first and sure had me holding my breath and smiling at the same time. I can no longer bandaging her leg/hoof without her being held. I think she's tired of it being "messed with". Maybe she's afraid it's going to hurt. I know it did for some time. It can't be bad now because she'll put her front legs up on the side of the playyard and stand on her back legs even though she bears most of the weight on her good leg.

Please keep up the prayers for her complete healing. They are working!

A Bit of Trivia

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second,

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

If the population of China walked past you, 8 abreast, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite!

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

The cruise liner, QE 2 moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

All the ants in Africa weigh more than ALL the Elephants!

There you go! More useless trivia that you probably needed to know but if you're like me, you had a couple that made you "humm"! Now we know why no one has trick trained goldfish!

If that wasn't enough, you might like to know that today, September 1st is National Onion Day! I have some cheapy beef that I cut for steaks so I think I'll cut the steak into strips and fry some onions with it. I'll add some garlic, pepper flakes and a can of mushrooms with liquid so the liquid can loosen the flavorful goodies from the pan. Hubby's been asking for some brown rice so I'll make it to use for the "bed" for the onions and beef.